| IW5EKI |
Rating:  |
2019-11-08 | |
| Bleah |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have own several radio receiver and scanner. This is the worst that I try |
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| IZ0FYS |
Rating:  |
2012-05-21 | |
| nice and funny |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
this is a very simple receiver, you have not to expect like an HF pure radio.
VR5000 is a factotum machine, you can receive everywhere with just a very small discone antenna, HF frequencies also !! This is possibile due to its internal tuner....amazing!!
Remeber this is the only one receiver that has got an internal tuner.
I can get 0-30 Mhz signals with only 30 cm vhf whip antenna.....try to believe.
VR5000 is very sensitive, and you cannot use it with a common HF large antenna, it will be overloaded.
So, if you want to use a yagi or long wire antenna...try with a ic-r71 o R5000 or other common classical receivers.
DSP option is very cool !!
the best use for VR5000 is how station general monitor.
Unfortunatly there are lots of stupid men who don't undestand it and say it must have 0/5 rate.
enjoy your VR5000 |
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| CR7000 |
Rating: |
2012-04-09 | |
| Great if you read the manual |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is a little marvel from Yeasu
It hears everything my other radios do, I use it from HF to 70cm, no problems
The real time spectrum scope is a gem, why bother tuning around searching for stations when you can be monitoring a station, and also see those that pop up around you.
If you take time to read and understand the manual you will realise that this is up there with the best
It certainly wont be leaving my shack anytime soon |
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| AJ4YI |
Rating: |
2011-02-06 | |
| Good for what is... |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Just as there is no such thing as a "perfect antenna", the same can be said for a radio. The VR-5000 is by no means a "perfect" system, but for its hard to find another wide band receiver with the same functionality at it's price point.
Overall, I think the Yaesu engineering team did a good job packing a large number of features in a very small box. The only REALLY REALLY dumb thing is the placement of the antenna switch. All one can say is "what ever were they thinking?" There are some other nits. The clock needs reset every time on loss of power. Not an issue if you use the provided transformer.
As noted elsewhere, the radio front end is sensitive, especially in HF, and especially so when using an antenna tuned for the band in interest. VHF/UHF and above seem to have much better performance. I find the optional DSP mitigates the sensitivity
I did not find the user manual as horrible as others made it out to be. The layout may stand some improvement, but the information is in there- one just has to dig around for it.
It takes a while to learn to use the VR-5000, and while I understand that some people absolutely loath the menus, once you learn where things are, it's not an issue. It's like any other electronic product you buy ( not just radio equipment), you have got to learn how to use it. |
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| ZL1LK |
Rating: |
2011-01-27 | |
| Great as a scanner only |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have had the VR5000 for only a coulpe of months and may I say... what a terrible HF receiver but a great VHF/UHF scanner. All my gripes are mainly for the HF side of this receiver.
Things I don't like:
Deaf front end on HF,
Front end overloads on my G5RV antenna,
Noise level to high on SSB,
AGC way to fast,
When the power supply is disconnected the clock is reset,
Dual frequencies only in AM or FM and only within 20MHz of each other.
The front end overloading can be improved by turning on the ATT on and adjust the RF tune.
Dispite what other owner say about the manual, I think the manual is very easy to understand, also the VR5000 is very easy to use.
Although HF SSB is useless it is quite good for AM shortwave listening.
VHF marine, aircraft and ham bands (2M & 70cm)
is excellent.
The VR5000 has some great features such as a good realtime bandscope, simultaneously monitors up to 50 channel at the same time, built-in/programmable shortwave listings, world clock, RF tune.
With the RF tune, it is easy to peak on a false peak, this causes all sorts of rubbish to come through. By tuning the RF tune carefully can help to minimise break-through and overloading.
If the VR5000 was only an HF receiver... I would of rated it only 2, but I rated it a 4 beceuse it's great as a scanner.
Yaesu could of done much better seems it's Yaesu's only current shortwave receiver on the market.
73 de ZL1LK Roy
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| ERIEDXER |
Rating: |
2009-10-28 | |
| So-So, Complicated |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| If you like a receiver with a lot of complexities and lots of sub-menus below menus, this is for you. It excels in complexity, but radio wise it's just not very good IMHO. It's lackluster performance that I feel is below even that of classic Yaesus like the FRG-7 makes it all the more not worth buying or figuring out how to operate. If you want a more modern receiver with bells and whistles I would pick a Drake R8 or JRC NRD 525/535 over this even if you have to spand a little more. They will give performance superior to the VR5000 without all the operating complexity. |
|
| 73383 |
Rating: |
2007-12-18 | |
| So Far Not Impressed |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'm not that impressed by the receiver front end, and the manual is one of the worst I've seen.
Whoever designed the different types of memory should have spent more time thinking about how to make them useful and working with more prototypes. I could not find much that was intuitive about it and, compared to other receivers, too many steps are required to store a frequency. And the manual doesn't help. It looks like whoever wrote the manual never actually worked with the receiver.
I use this radio primarily for monitoring VHF and UHF aviation frequencies. I'm unable to squelch the noise on either band without turning on the Attenuator. My antenna works fine with my other receivers.
Also, many of the frequencies I want to monitor have intermodulation interference from what sounds like FM broadcast stations. I don't have these problems with my other radios. I haven't tried the VR-5000 on any frequencies other than the 118-137 MHz and 200-400 MHz bands, but I have no reason to believe it will work any better.
The minimum brightness setting for the display is too bright. The manual does a poor job of describing the many features in this radio.
If you're looking for a good general coverage scanner/receiver, the VR-5000 isn't the one. |
|
| G4VVQ |
Rating: |
2007-07-01 | |
| Rubbish! don't buy one |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This is the worst radio i ever bought, the front end overload is terrible, i would think you would have to put a well matched antenna on it to work reasonably well, i picked up all sorts of rubbish on mine, i tried it in the shop, well all radio's in that shop sound awful, flouresent lights and stuff...so i bought it anyway, sold it about a week later, bought a s/h FT-847, that's tons better, my advise, give it a wide birth, (how ever you spell that)...Fred |
|
| K6JEY |
Rating: |
2007-01-26 | |
| DSP is Great |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have an older version. I agree the antenna switch is very strange. An external switch solves the problem.
I wish they had used the memory bank system they used in the VX2. Otherwise a good radio.
However, with the DSP the radio is great. The CW selectivity is excellent. The noise reduction and high and low cut allowed me to tune in a barely perceptible AM SW station, switch on the DSP, and have a wonderfully clear signal. Fantastic! In short, get the DSP. You will be happy you did. |
|
| BEAM |
Rating: |
2007-01-13 | |
| Un bellissimo ricevitore con alcune luci e molte ombre |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Ho usato la VR-5000 per circa un anno riuscendo così ad apprezzare tutto ciò che ha di buono, ma anche patendo le incongruenze di fondo che questa radio (progettata con le migliori intenzioni, secondo me), si trascina inevitabilmente dietro.
Come impressione generale, direi che in casa Yaesu si sia, per qualche motivo, improvvisamente passati dalla fase di progettazione alla produzione, senza aspettare di mettere a punto le ultime cose. Questo perchè la VR-5000 ha alcune funzioni eccezionali, alcune molto innovative, ma, allo stesso tempo, soffre di problemi banali come intermodulazioni e relativo ingresso di molte frequenze immagine.
Diciamo subito che l'ascolto in HF non è soddisfacente, non è infatti possibile collegare al ricevitore vere antenne per le HF, pena la saturazione del front-end e l'obbligo di lavorare con l'attenuatore sempre attivato.
Con antenne meno "grandi" la radio si dimostra sensibile e versatile, ma manca di "presenza", in quanto il segnale utile sembra quasi sempre diluito nel rumore di fondo, questo in SSB.
Quando però si ascoltano i forti segnali Broadcast in AM il discorso cambia totalmente, infatti la radio è "presente" e l'audio riprodotto è buono ed estrememente gradevole (molto migliore di quello che si ascolta con il filtro standard nel pur blasonatissimo R-5000 della Kenwood).
Nelle VHF-UHF la radio ha diverse luci e un discreto numero di ombre. Dotata di un'ottima sensibilità soffre molto di intermodulazioni da Radio FM 88-108 e da trasmettitori televisivi VHF e UHF.
Altro particolare fastidioso è la riproposizione dei forti segnali del VHF civile in gamma 800-900 Mhz, dove si è convinti di aver trovato nuove stazioni e si resta delusi quando si capisce che si tratta di semplici segnali fantasma (frequenze immagine).
La VR-5000 ha però un fantastico Bandscope che è veramente eccezionale e permette la visualizzazione di una larga gamma di frequenze intorno a quella sintonizzata.
Il Bandoscpe, unito alla facilità d'uso dello Scan permette di individuare molte nuove stazioni trasmittenti che altrimenti sarebbero rimaste nascoste.
Un'altra funzione a mio parere molto utile è l'RF-TUNE, che permette di accordare il preselettore ed è molto utile per rigettare segnali spuri e attenuare le intermodulazioni.
Il manuale (Un altra grossa pecca di questa radio) quasi non parla di questa funzione, e soprattutto non spiega come riportarlo in posizione auto, una volta che lo si è regolato manualmente (la procedura descritta sul manuale italiano è errata).
Questo particolare porta molte persone a pensare di avere una radio molto scadente per le mani, solo perchè il Front-End è completamente starato e non si sa come riportarlo alla normalità.
L'ergonomia è sostanzialmente buona, eccetto i piedini per il rialzo della parte anteriore, che sono troppo bassi e costringono all'uso di ulteriori rialzi per vedere bene il display.
Inserire una frequenza in memoria richiede diversi passaggi, ma per quanto riguarda l'uso come ricevitore la logica di funzionamento è ineccepibile.
Alla fine l'ho venduta perchè non sopportavo la cattiva ricezione HF in SSB, le troppe immagini in V-U e l'impossibilità di gestire la radio tramite Ham Radio Deluxe (La Yaesu non vuole fornire i codici di funzionamento a terzi).
Rimpiango il Bandscope e la sensibilità nelle VHF-UHF. Il giusto voto sarebbe tre e mezzo. |
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